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PS3 has problems with some older games

November 14, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment

PS3 - the PlayStation 3 game console When Sony released the second PlayStation game machine, one of its best features was "backward compatibility" with older games. In addition to the new games released for PS2, the new system could play games released for the original PlayStation.

This was a very smart move on Sony's part, because there were hundreds of PlayStation games available at the time (and not a lot of next generation games available for the PS2). Furthermore, it set them apart Nintendo and Sega, whose game machines were not compatible with their previous game titles.

Sony promised the same backward compatibility for this year's model, the PS3. Older games released for the PS2 are supposed to work on this new game machine.

But when the PS3 was released in Japan last weekend, consumers were told that some older games are not supported by the new system.

The North American PlayStation Web site has a brief article about the problem here. There are compatibility issues in many popular titles including Tekken 5, Xenosaga Episode II, Code Age Commanders, Driving Emotion Type-S, Gran Turismo 4, Hot Shots Golf 3/4, Megaman X7, Devil May Cry, and Silent Hill 2.

As of this writing, the Japanese PlayStation Web site has a searchable database of problem games. That's great news if you can read Japanese. Here's hoping the North American office gets its own version of the database up and running before the North American launch of the PS3.

Not that it matters much. Only 400,000 PS3 consoles are available for sale in North America, and most of those have already been pre-ordered. If you're just learning about the PS3, you can safely ignore it until the new year. Maybe the bugs will be worked out by then.

By the way, this little slip-up puts Sony in the same boat with Microsoft, which announced that its Xbox 360 console would be backward compatible with original Xbox games, but failed to mention that this meant some games would work, and that the "optional" Xbox 360 hard drive would be required to play the older games. Read one fan's tale of woe here.

Update: The US PlayStation site now has a search tool here.

November 14, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item